Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1887-05-11

~ - well KNOWN that the CHIEF
cause Of pauperisin is drink. Re-
turns nmde for ! long series Of years
for Suffplk county, which includes
the city Ut Boston. show that eighty
per cent ofsthe paupers in that coun-
~ is due 70 intemperance. The
Massachusetts board Or state chart
ties says that eighty per cent Of all
the paupers in that state is caused
by drink. Senator Blair says that
from two-thirds to four-fifths Of the
inmates Of the poorhouse in the
United States are sent there by
drink. There is no reason to doubt
that a. large a percentage Of the pow
erty which is not in the p~oorhouse
is due to the same cause. Multi
tudes waste enough Of their earn
ings In drink TO keep them misera-
bly, poor, but not quite enough to
make them paupers. George Fred
erick Parsons says in the atlantic:
Labor in United States is every
year spending upon drink which it
does not need, and which hurts it,
fully t6OO.0Oo,OOO; a sum so large
that if even fifty per cent Of it were
saved ! fund could be established in
two years which, under wise man
agement, would render d~estitution
among the poor Of this country i'm
possible forever after"
Labor ~agitators say that poverty
is more frequently the case than the
effect Of intemperancc; that the
poor drink to relieve the exhaustion
produced BY too long a days work,
and to drown the misery caused by
the squalor and want OF undergrad
toll, and the despair Of ever improv-
ing their condition. No doubt spe-
cial misfortune, protracted sickness,
inability to get steady employment
or sufficient wages, and loss ofhope,
have induced the drink habit in
some who, but for these causes,
would have remained sober men
but for one such case there are
thousands in which the drink-habit
is the cause and not the effect of the
destitution of the poor. They drink,
but not because they are poor, but
because they want to drink. Most
Of them have an inherited appetite
for drink, and enjoys the rude fel-
|lowship which the saloon affords.
They generally believe, moreover,
thanks to the example and teaching
Of SUCH men as Howard Crosby, that
moderate drinking is entirely harm
less, if not beneficial; and that only
excess is injurious. But moderate
drinking, If it led to nothing worse,
the poor cannot afford. They need
all they can earn to make their
homes attractive and comfortable.
and to provide for the future. The
five TO twenty-five cents a day spent
by wage-workers in moderate
drinking makes all the difference
between decent poverty, with the
n~ecessaries and many Of the COM
forts of life and some saving for the
future, and "living from hand to
mouth" with scant supply of daily
needs, and q condition continually
worse. Ecclis est descensus aUerpao.
The descent Of poor man in the
daily habit Of taking a social glass,
or two or three, with his fellows to
tho hell Of drunkenness, with all the
wretchedness Of a saualid home
and miserable, ill-clad, ill-fed wife
and children, and utter hopelessness
for the future is easy, swift, and al
most certain.
These victims of the saloon con-
stitute our discontinued, turbulent,
criminal classes, who, while wasting
their substance in riotous living,
blame society for their poverty and
are always ready to make reprisals
for their grievances. They clog all
legitimate labor movements, lower
the rates Of wages, foment disturb
ance and disunion in labor organiza-
tions, and are to blame for about all
the violence that occurs in connec-
tion with strikes. The drink traffic
is the greatest enemy Of the poor, the
cause Of their poverty and the him
drance Of their progress. 1t is
strange that avowed champions of
the rights of labor, like Henry
George and Mr.. Powderly, and their
coadjntors, do not see this and seek
first the extinction Of the saloon as
indispensable 10 any permanent i'm
provement in the condition Of the
wage-working classes.
Il may be true that the poor have
grievances which might be removed
t.. 1aAA~- l-l